The Stars In Our Sky

I

Irina's POV

"Do you believe in magic, momma?" I had once asked my mother while she brushed out my long silver blond hair.

"Of course sweety. Magic exists everywhere in Exotreia. You should know that by now. And believe me darling, it creates miracles. It led me to your father. Now time for school." She had told me as she turned me around to face her for a hug and kiss goodbye. If only I had known that that hug and kiss would've been my last from her.

"I'm sorry Miss Moonstone but your mother was found dead in the sewers with lots of bruises and cuts littered all over her body. There were especially more around her breasts, wrists, ankles, and vaginal area. In her autopsy we had found traces of Scorpio poison in her blood. We believe she may have been beaten then sexually assaulted by the kidnappers for multiple days then poisoned and left in the sewers to die. We're very sorry for your loss." That was all the police officers had said to my 7 year old self as she was sobbing in her father's arms.

10 years later and I am still haunted by that unfortunate day that changed my life forever. It may seem typical of him, but after my mother died my father just went on full breakdown mode. My mother was his everything. His light in the dark, his reason to wake up in the mornings, his reason to live. But she was gone, forever, only to live on in our memories of her. And he just lost it. His job, our house, his car, his sanity. He even cut all ties with my grandparents. And then came the alcohol and the women and drugs. In the five years I was trapped with him, he became a shell of who he once was. The loving father I knew was gone. Only to become a jobless alcoholic who would sleep around with any woman who he laid his eyes on. And that included me. I still remember the nights of the sexual abuse. How he reeked of alcohol and marijuana. How he looked at me with those predatory eyes. How he couldn't take no for an answer.

But that, of course, came to an end. After I turned 12, I started my adult training. And that meant I no longer needed my father. I was expected to be able to be independent and live in the Dorms for the Adolescent in our town's local Institution of Training. As all 12 year olds would be doing. And that day was the best day in the world. People always say the day that they graduated from the Institute or their wedding day or the day their child came into the world was their best day of their lives. But mine was my 12th birthday. December 12, 2000. Because it was the day I was set free. Free of all the cleaning up the broken bottles or condom wrappers or the stench of alcohol or decaying piles of garbage. Free of the burden of my father.

But I will never blame him for all his wrongdoings. I could never. Because he wasn't himself, in his right mind. You can say he was just forced into that kind of lifestyle as a coping mechanism.  And that if I were him, I would be guilty of doing the same. It wasn't he who started my misfortune, anyway. It was those Scorpios. So it's in my right that I shall forever bear a grudge against all Scorpios. But I will remember, never to forget, what he did to me. And it still haunts me to this day, even as I prepare myself for another performance. My most important one yet, as it is for the youngest prince of Genesis and his entourage.